Dear Expert

[Annie Subjunctive]

Is this a word?

I don't think it's a word.

But it makes perfect sense. Is it OK for academic authors to make up words like that if they want to?

[dkw]

It's a word.  Or at least more than one academic author uses it.

[Annie Subjunctive]

Is it synonymous with appropriateness, then? Merriam-Webster didn't think it was a word.

[dkw]

As far as I can tell, yes.  If it's supposed to have some slightly different connotation I don't know what it is.

[Jonathon]

Is this a word?

I guess that depends on what your definition of word is.

Merriam-Webster didn't think it was a word.

Not having an entry for a word isn't the same as not thinking that it's a word. Is it a word that many people use? Apparently not, because it gets 50,000 Google hits compared to 35,000,000 for appropriateness.

[Annie Subjunctive]

I think if there's not a nuanced difference in meaning between two words that are the same word except for choice of morpheme, we don't need two of them.

But there goes the prescriptivist devil on my shoulder again.

[pooka]

I have a prescriptivist imp.

[Amilia]

Our artwork has been showcased in many international magazines and newspapers including the Ensign, USA Today, the  New York Times and the Stained Glass Association of America.

Should "the" be capitalized for The New York Times?

[Jonathon]

Traditionally, initial articles in the names of periodicals are neither capitalized nor italicized (though articles in book titles get both—don't ask me why). So it's the New York Times but The Chicago Manual of Style.

[The Genuine]

The leading manual on legal citation (which I've mentioned before but will re-mention for convenience), the Blue Book:  A Uniform System of Citation, states in rule 8 that you should capitalize in headings/titles, but defer to the Chicago Manual of Style or Government Printing Office Style Manual when it's not a heading or title.

[The Genuine]

I routinely capitalize "Hell."  Are there instances where I shouldn't?

And, should I ever capitalize "Heaven" ?  When—the same rules that apply to "Hell" apply to "Heaven" ?

[Jonathon]

They're both typically lowercased. That's what both Chicago and the LDS Church style guide say, at any rate.

[Tante Shvester]

Well, The New York Times capitalizes the "The" in their name.  They don't call themselves "New York Times", it's "The New York Times".  It's right there on their masthead.

[Jonathon]

Well, like so many things, this is a stylistic issues, and styles vary.

[pooka]

I'd go with Chicago but not necessarily the LDS church since we don't believe in heaven and hell, per se.  I've never seen a translation of the Bible where they were capitalized, but again, LDS.

When I was a little girl I had a non LDS bible because they hadn't come out with them yet.  But I only remember the words of Jesus were in red.

[Tante Shvester]

Did the Romans speak in italics or Times New Roman?  Did the Egyptians speak in Papyrus?

[Jonathon]

I'd go with Chicago but not necessarily the LDS church since we don't believe in heaven and hell, per se.  I've never seen a translation of the Bible where they were capitalized, but again, LDS.

But in this regard they're the same. Also, the LDS Church style guide doesn't capitalize celestial kingdom either, so it's not a matter of what we believe in. And strangely, the LDS edition of the scriptures does not follow Church style at all. For example, Church style capitalizes deity pronouns and a host of other things that the scriptures don't.

[Jonathon]

Did the Romans speak in italics or Times New Roman?  Did the Egyptians speak in Papyrus?

I'm not going to dignify that with an answer.

[Tante Shvester]

I have a feeling that once Jesse realizes he could have been playing with fonts all this time, he's going to take to it with a vengeance, to catch up.

[Annie Subjunctive]

The Romans wrote, at least, in Trajan. As in, they made the font from the actual Roman writing on Trajan's column. So Trajan is totally legit.

Also, I am sorry to hear that Hell is not capitalized. I'll have to have a chat with my students:

[Jonathon]

I have a feeling that once Jesse realizes he could have been playing with fonts all this time, he's going to take to it with a vengeance, to catch up.

And I will hold you personally responsible.

[Tante Shvester]

He's a playful guy and I, for one, am delighted by his puckish insouciance.

[rivka]

I'm not going to dignify that with an answer.

I believe you just did.

[Amilia]

Traditionally, initial articles in the names of periodicals are neither capitalized nor italicized (though articles in book titles get both—don't ask me why). So it's the New York Times but The Chicago Manual of Style.

Thank you! 

[Porter]

I think if there's not a nuanced difference in meaning between two words that are the same word except for choice of morpheme, we don't need two of them.

But there goes the prescriptivist devil on my shoulder again.

Sure, you don't need them. 

But there are tons of stuff in our language that we don't need.  And we're missing some stuff that would be really handy.